I have always had a passion for books and for the past four years I was honored with an appointment to the American Library Association CODES Notable Books Council. Now I am starting on a new adventure, the American Library Association CODES The Reading List book award for genre fiction.

I am about halfway through about 10 different books right now so please forgive me for not having any reviews to post. One of these days I am going to be hitting you with tons of books to read....but not today. Since I don't have any book reviews for you I thought I would find you some more free book type offerings.

April is National Poetry Month and I have some lovely podcasts for you to download since it is always satisfying to listen to poetry aloud.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Cor-por-ate Spell-ing Been. 1. A fun event that supports literacy for adults in the Kansas City area. 2. A chance to enjoy delicious food and beverages, bid on silent and live auction items while expanding your vocabulary. 3. A grueling competition in which teams from area companies and organizations spell tough words until one team is victorious!

I went to a blogger meet-up last night and as always, was fascinated by the group dynamics of these events. In my normal life I pretty much hang out with librarians. I like librarians. I understand librarians (unless they are men and then there is that dumb as a post thing that happens to me when trying to communicate with them). We think alike, we talk alike and that is a very comfortable place for me to be.

Anyway, what is interesting and challenging about going to the blogger meet-ups is how diverse the group is. You have everything from political to general rants about life bloggers and everything in between. I liked some of the bloggers immediately, others will take a while to get to know and there may be one or two out there that I never warm to. That is what is so interesting about this particular group. I also love how much it changes from meet-up to meet-up depending on who attends.

So in the little group of potential new friends that I got to bond with, we spent time talking about freaky porn (as opposed to regular porn) and yes, trust me, there is a big difference!, trips, books and music. We also talked about all of you who weren’t there and pondered why “you” weren’t at the meet-up. FYI: We miss you guys!

Most of the bloggers seemed just like their blog (maybe a little quieter or louder in person) but overall, just like I pictured them. One blogger, however, who I didn’t have a chance to meet but glimpsed down the table from me, was not how I pictured her at all. I have to say, I admire (and am a little jealous) of her ability to jump into activities in a new town with both feet. Welcome to KC, Keri Oke.

Monday, March 24, 2008

I pulled this off a library listserv to share with you since Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. These are books that other librarians thought were similar in tone, subject or style to his work.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

I saw this on Bea's Weblog and felt the need to take because well, I am a sucker for personality test and because I am supposed to be working on a couple of employee evaluations right now.

My Personality

Neuroticism

14

Extraversion

38

Openness to Experience

82

Agreeableness

89

Conscientiousness

76

You rarely get angry and it takes a lot to make you angry, however you are not generally self conscious about yourself. You tend not to talk much and prefer to let others control the activities of groups. You prefer facts over fantasy and are more interested in what is happening in the real word. You find helping other people genuinely rewarding and are generally willing to assist those who are in need. You find that doing things for others is a form of self-fulfillment rather than self-sacrifice, however you are willing to take credit for good things that you do but you don't often talk yourself up much. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives.

Monday, March 17, 2008

This is kind of fun especially if you have read most of the books because you are on a committee. The "2008 Tournament of Books" sponsored by Powell Books. Oddly enough, I did like both of today's contenders quite a bit but would have never thought of pitting them against each other.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

I grew up in Western Kansas and there were two things that were (and still are) very important to my father. The first is supporting local business even if it is slightly more expensive (a major concession since he is also a depression baby and a bit of a skinflint) and second, supporting public schools.

So last Friday was a particularly interesting day for me. After work, I headed down to 18th & Vine to attend the 1st anniversary of Viable Third, hosted by local bloggers, Gone Mild and KC Sponge and was intrigued and impressed with the grassroots philosophy of the Viable Third in trying to get people in that district to commit to spend their money in their community. I love this idea which also flows nicely into my "buy locally produced food" philosophy.

The other agenda for the evening was to introduce the blogging community to Airick West who is currently running for a seat on the Kansas City School Board. I don't talk about politics much on this blog although I have very strong opinions about the issues but, what I do talk about and care about (which involves doing some work) is the need for everyone to find out about and research the issues, discover what the candidates stand for and then actually getting off the couch to vote your conscience.

I also care very much about supporting our public school system. Yes, the KCMO public schools are a disaster and yes, I have a great deal of sympathy for parents who pull their children out to attend private schools because they want the best for their children but nothing will get better if everyone in the community doesn't get involved in helping to facilitate change at the neighborhood level. If all of the involved, energetic parents work only with their child's private school, where does that leave the children who are left behind. These are the kids who need to see positive parenting skills and successful adult role models. These are the kids who need room mothers and community members involved in their school. These are the kids that need mentors and friends and fans cheering them on.

Small towns have some really annoying aspects but on the positive side, the entire community revolves around the schools. Everyone in town attends the football games and cheers on the team (no matter how bad they are). Likewise when the drama club puts on a play, everyone attends, even the people who don't have children. So, take a page from those small towns, find out what your neighborhood public school is doing and start supporting one or two of those activities with your time. Go to the art exhibits, attend the basketball games, the bake sales or the community readalongs. If you don't, who will?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Today was super busy at work so it wasn't until about 8 p.m. tonight that I had a chance to check my Google Reader account, which I love almost as much as my phone. And not to go off on a tangent but...For those of you who use Blogger, PLEASE change your feed settings to full so that the whole blog post feeds into my reader. 99% of the time I don't go to your blog to see the rest of the post, I just skip it.

Anyway, after a whole day of getting a lot of email from some very odd people (not naming any names here) I look at my reader account and have 412 blog posts to read. May I just say...Damn, you people talk a lot!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

By the way, I am planning the teen programming for this summer at the library and the hot trend in libraries is gaming nights. Since the only game I have played that I actually liked was Rock Band I need help. I do have a Playstation and can borrow a Wii (I think). Any relevant suggestions are welcome. In fact, you can consider this begging....

Monday, March 10, 2008

Today I downloaded a couple of e-books to my Trio in the (highly unlikely) event that I get trapped in an elevator/warehouse/fall down a mine shaft, without anything to read. Today I visited the Project Gutenberg site and picked The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins and Notes From The Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I really wanted something by Rainer Maria Rilke or Saul Bellows but they didn't seem to have anything by those authors.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Before I started reading for my book award committee, I pretty consistently would read one book at a time. Now I always seem to have three or four books going at once. Right now, I am reading two. One is A Free Life by Ha Jin and the other is Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality by Martha Nussbaum.

A Free Life has been an interesting book by Ha Jin. This is the story about a Chinese couple who come to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their child. I have been enjoying it very much in spite of the fact that I have spent most of the book wanting to smack the main character for his utter determination to be as unhappy as possible. The moments in the book that I find myself still thinking about are the interactions with others, and most particularly with a white couple adopting a Chinese baby. As with several couples I know personally, this couple is determined to make sure that their child grows up knowing all about her cultural heritage. What I found funny in this book was the way the Chinese couple reacted to this. They were politely baffled. Why, they ask, would the couple do this when their child would be growing up as an American. I still think Waiting is Ha Jin's best book but I do recommend this one as well.

The author of Liberty of Conscience is one of those books that (so far) has been a joy to read because it so closely echoes my own beliefs and ideas about what the separation of church and state (not to mention religious freedom) is all about. The author has presented her thoughts and ideas in a clear, scholarly way that argues for the founding fathers intention to build a country that "respects the preciousness and dignity of the individual human conscience and the equality of all religions (or lack of religion)". In other words, the right of every individual to follow his own path, to pursue spirituality (or lack thereof) it his own way. The author revisits every major defining moment of our country and shows that it was founded with very clear protections and ideas about the separation of church and state for the protection of BOTH entities and also makes an excellent case for why protecting those boundaries is so important to the health of each entity.

I really believe in these principles but of course, I still struggle with some of the more day-to-day practical issues. For example, a friend was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and it did an enormous amount of damage with regard to her ability to follow her own path and discover her own religious truths. How does governmental non-intervention respond to these kinds of issues and where do we draw the line?

Who knows, I haven't quite finished the book yet so maybe the author will manage to address these issues as well and answer my questions in a satisfactory way.

We need young people who are willing to sit on a panel and discuss their activist work and we need folks (young & old) to participate in the workshop!!!

If you . . .Are a younger activist (13 - 35 years old) fighting racismKnow a younger activist who is fighting racismWant to become a young person fighting racismAre an older activist interested in want young folks are doingWant more info about this workshop

With all of the interest/debate about the Bodies Revealed exhibit, I thought I would provide yet another way to learn about the human body. The website, Visible Body, is an interactive web animation tool that lets users explore the human anatomy and all its various systems. (FYI: It works best with Internet Explorer/Windows)

Sunday, March 02, 2008

I have been on a graphic novel reading kick and yes, I know it isn't on my first round of award potentials reading list. A current favorite of mine is Warren Ellis who wrote the incredibleTransmetropolitan series. Anyway, over the weekend I finished up his new novel (no pictures, just words in this one) Crooked Little Vein. The book is a noir detective novel in which the main character, in search of a rare book, meets many strange and perverted characters. Because I read this book I now know several words I did not know before. Unfortunately, because I am a librarian and I just have know things, I made the mistake of looking them up and I now know more about the kinky porn industry that I really wanted to know. (FYI: apparently the drinking of urine is considered erotic in some circles.)

If you can handle the kink and like noir detective novels it was kind of a fun book.